The original OpenDocument format consists of an XML document that has <document> as its root element. OpenDocument files can also take the format of a ZIP compressed archive containing a number of files and directories; these can contain binary content and benefit from ZIP's lossless compression to reduce file size. OpenDocument benefits from separation of concerns by separating the content, styles, metadata, and application settings into four separate XML files.

The OpenDocument standard was developed by a Technical Committee (TC) under the OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) industry consortium. The ODF-TC has members from a diverse set of companies and individuals. Active TC members have voting rights. Members associated with Sun and IBM have sometimes had a large voting influence.[14] The standardization process involved the developers of many office suites or related document systems. The first official ODF-TC meeting to discuss the standard was 16 December 2002; OASIS approved OpenDocument as an OASIS standard on 1 May 2005. OASIS submitted the ODF specification to ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 (JTC 1) on 16 November 2005, under Publicly Available Specification (PAS) rules. ISO/IEC standardization for an open document standard including text, spreadsheet and presentation was proposed for the first time in DKUUG 28 August 2001.[15]

After a six-month review period, on 3 May 2006, OpenDocument unanimously passed its six-month DIS (Draft International Standard) ballot in JTC 1 (ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34), with broad participation,[16] after which the OpenDocument specification was "approved for release as an ISO and IEC International Standard" under the name ISO/IEC 26300:2006.[17]

After responding to all written ballot comments, and a 30-day default ballot, the OpenDocument international standard went to publication in ISO, officially published 30 November 2006.

Further standardization work with OpenDocument includes:

The OASIS Committee Specification OpenDocument 1.0 (second edition) corresponds to the published ISO/IEC 26300:2006 standard. The content of ISO/IEC 26300 and OASIS OpenDocument v1.0 2nd ed. is identical.[5] It includes the editorial changes made to address JTC1 ballot comments. It is available in ODF, HTML and PDF formats.

OpenDocument 1.1 includes additional features to address accessibility concerns.[18] It was approved as an OASIS Standard on 2007-02-01 following a call for vote issued on 2007-01-16.[19] The public announcement was made on 2007-02-13.[20] This version was not initially submitted to ISO/IEC, because it is considered to be a minor update to ODF 1.0 only, and OASIS were working already on ODF 1.2 at the time ODF 1.1 was approved.[21] However it was later submitted to ISO/IEC (as of March 2011, it was in "enquiry stage" as Draft Amendment 1 – ISO/IEC 26300:2006/DAM 1) and published in March 2012 as "ISO/IEC 26300:2006/Amd 1:2012 – Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) v1.1".[9][10]

OpenDocument 1.2 includes additional accessibility features, RDF-based metadata,[22] a spreadsheet formula specification based on OpenFormula,[22] support for digital signatures and some features suggested by the public. It consists of three parts: Part 1: OpenDocument Schema, Part 2: Recalculated Formula (OpenFormula) Format and Part 3: Packages. Version 1.2 of the specification was approved as an OASIS Standard on 29 September 2011.[23] It was submitted to the relevant ISO committee under the Publicly Available Specification (PAS) procedure in March 2014.[24] As of October 2014, it has been unanimously approved as a Draft International Standard, some comments have been raised in process that need to be addressed before OpenDocument 1.2 can proceed to become an International Standard.[25] OpenDocument 1.2 was published as ISO/IEC standard on 17 June 2015.[2][3][4]

OpenDocument 1.3 (a.k.a. "ODF-Next") As of January, 2014, the current state of a possible future version of OpenDocument specification is a working draft (a preliminary unapproved sketch, outline, or version of the specification). The OASIS Advanced Document Collaboration subcommittee (created in December, 2010) is working on an update of OpenDocument change-tracking that will not only enhance the existing change-tracking feature set, but also lay the foundation for the standardization of real-time collaboration by making change tracking compatible with real-time collaboration.[26][27][28]

The OpenDocument format is used in free software and in proprietary software. This includes office suites (both stand-alone and web-based) and individual applications such as word-processors, spreadsheets, presentation, and data management applications. Prominent text editors, word processors and office suites supporting OpenDocument fully or partially include:

Various organizations have announced development of conversion software (including plugins and filters) to support OpenDocument on Microsoft's products.[43][44] As of July 2007[update], there are nine packages of conversion software. Microsoft first released support for the OpenDocument Format in Office 2007 SP2.[45] However, the implementation faced substantial criticism and the ODF Alliance and others claimed that the third party plugins provided better support.[46] Microsoft Office 2010 can open and save OpenDocument Format documents natively, although not all features are supported.[47]

Versions of the OpenDocument Format approved by OASIS are available for free download and use.[48] The ITTF has added ISO/IEC 26300 to its "list of freely available standards"; anyone may download and use this standard free-of-charge under the terms of a click-through license.[49]

Obligated members of the OASIS ODF TC have agreed to make deliverables available to implementors under the OASIS Royalty Free with Limited Terms policy.

Key contributor Sun Microsystems made an irrevocable intellectual property covenant, providing all implementers with the guarantee that Sun will not seek to enforce any of its enforceable U.S. or foreign patents against any implementation of the OpenDocument specification in which development Sun participates to the point of incurring an obligation.[50]

A second contributor to ODF development, IBM – which, for instance, has contributed Lotus spreadsheet documentation[51] – has made their patent rights available through their Interoperability Specifications Pledge in which "IBM irrevocably covenants to you that it will not assert any Necessary Claims against you for your making, using, importing, selling, or offering for sale Covered Implementations."[52]

The Software Freedom Law Center has examined whether there are any legal barriers to the use of the OpenDocument Format (ODF) in free and open source software arising from the standardization process. In their opinion ODF is free of legal encumbrances that would prevent its use in free and open source software, as distributed under licenses authored by Apache and the FSF.

An output of the 10th Plugfest was an ODF toolkit[54] which includes "Open Document Format principles for Government Technology" that has the purpose of simply explaining the case for ODF directed at the "average civil servant" and includes an extract from the UK Government policy relating to Open Document Format.

The toolkit also includes a single page graphical image[55] designed to articulate the consequences of not choosing Open Document Format. The illustration has now been translated into more than 10 languages.

NATO with its 26 members uses ODF as a mandatory standard for all members.[57]

The TAC (Telematics between Administrations Committee), composed of e-government policy-makers from the 25 European Union Member States, endorsed a set of recommendations for promoting the use of open document formats in the public sector.[58]

On 4 November 2005, IBM and Sun Microsystems convened the "OpenDocument (ODF) Summit" in Armonk, New York, to discuss how to boost OpenDocument adoption. The ODF Summit brought together representatives from several industry groups and technology companies, including Oracle, Google, Adobe, Novell, Red Hat, Computer Associates, Corel, Nokia, Intel, and Linux e-mail company Scalix (LaMonica, 10 November 2005). The providers committed resources to technically improve OpenDocument through existing standards bodies and to promote its usage in the marketplace, possibly through a stand-alone foundation.[61] Scholars have suggested that the "OpenDocument standard is the wedge that can hold open the door for competition, particularly with regard to the specific concerns of the public sector."[62] Indeed, adoption by the public sector has risen considerably since the promulgation of the OpenDocument format initiated the 2005/2006 time period.[62]

Different applications using ODF as a standard document format have different methods of providing macro/scripting capabilities. There is no macro language specified in ODF. Users and developers differ on whether inclusion of a standard scripting language would be desirable.[63]

The ODF specification for tracked changes is limited and does not fully specify all cases, resulting in implementation-specific behaviors.[64] In addition, OpenDocument does not support change tracking in elements like tables or MathML.[65]

It is not permitted to use generic ODF formatting style elements (like font information) for the MathML elements.[65]

One objective of open formats like OpenDocument is to guarantee long-term access to data without legal or technical barriers, and some governments have come to view open formats as a public policy issue. Several governments around the world have introduced policies of partial or complete adoption.[62] What this means varies from case to case; in some cases, it means that the ODF standard has a national standard identifier; in some cases, it means that the ODF standard is permitted to be used where national regulation says that non-proprietary formats must be used, and in still other cases, it means that some government body has actually decided that ODF will be used in some specific context. The following is an incomplete list:

^"Fact-sheet Microsoft ODF support"(PDF). odfalliance. Archived from the original(PDF) on 11 June 2009. Retrieved 24 May 2009. MS Excel 2007 will process ODF spreadsheet documents when loaded via the Sun Plug-In 3.0 for MS Office or the SourceForge “OpenXML/ODF Translator Add-in for Office,” but will fail when using the “built-in” support provided by Office 2007 SP2.